Brothers released from jail in...

ORANJESTAD, ARUBA

December 02, 2007

ORANJESTAD, ARUBABrothers released from jail in Holloway case Two Surinamese brothers re-arrested last week in the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway walked out of jail Saturday after a judge ruled the evidence wasn't strong enough to keep holding them. Deepak Kalpoe, 24, left the lockup in the afternoon and got into a car with one of his attorneys. His 21-year-old brother Satish, who was released earlier in the day, declined to speak to reporters when his attorneys dropped him off at his house. A third suspect, Joran van der Sloot, remains in jail. He and the two brothers were the last known people to see Holloway before she vanished more than two years ago, hours before she was scheduled to return home to Alabama with fellow high school classmates celebrating their graduation. All three have denied any role in the disappearance of Holloway, who has not been seen since she left a bar with the suspects May 30, 2005. She was 18 at the time. JAKARTA, INDONESIAStrong quake jolts western Indonesia A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia on Saturday, geological agencies said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The temblor had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and was centered 65 miles from Sibolga, a city on Sumatra island, the U.S. Geological Survey. The Indonesian geological agency did not issue a tsunami warning. In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh. BEIJINGTrain to Tibet carries first Chinese troops China's high-speed, high-altitude railway to Tibet carried troops to the region for the first time, state media has reported, in a development likely to fuel concerns about the railway's impact on the restive Himalayan area. The brief Xinhua News Agency report late Friday did not say how many soldiers were aboard the train that left a provincial city Friday for the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The report cited unnamed sources in the People's Liberation Army as saying that the "railway will become a main option" for transporting troops to Tibet, replacing the air and road routes used since Chinese troops annexed Tibet 57 years ago. The $4.2 billion "Sky Train" uses special technology to snake across the Tibetan plateau's permafrost and 16,500-feet mountain passes and has cut travel time to Lhasa from Beijing and other cities to two days, instead of weeks. In the 17 months since its inauguration, however, the railway has brought a surge of Chinese tourists and ferried minerals out of the region, raising suspicions among critics that its main purpose is to tighten the communist government's hold on Tibet. Tibetan monitoring groups and activists supporting independence for the region have warned that Tibetan Buddhist culture is being further eroded. COLOMBO, SRI LANKASri Lankan military: 13 rebels killed in fights Troops fought a series of gunbattles with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels across Sri Lanka's northern front lines, killing 13 guerrillas in recent days, the military said Saturday. A group of Tamil Tigers attacked soldiers guarding the defense line early Saturday morning, an officer at the Defense Ministry's media center said. Soldiers repelled the attack and the ensuing gunbattle killed six insurgents, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The Tigers have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in the island country's north and east after a history of discrimination by successive governments controlled by the majority ethnic Sinhalese. KIEV, UKRAINEBlast shakes mine; 5 injured, 35 missing An explosion early Saturday hit the Ukrainian coal mine where 100 workers died in a methane blast in November, the Interfax news agency reported. At least five miners were seriously injured and another 35 were unaccounted for at the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk, the agency said, citing an unnamed official in the State Industrial Safety Committee. Twenty other miners were brought to the surface Saturday, the agency reported. The Nov. 18 blast at Zasyadko was the worst coal-mining disaster in Ukraine's post-Soviet history. VATICAN CITYPope: More church teachings in debates Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday criticized what he said was the tendency of debate at international organizations to ignore "natural moral law" in their efforts to make a more peaceful world. He cited what he called a "selective defense of human rights" in discussions at international organizations -- an apparent reference to the United Nations' provision of family planning services to women around the world.